Email Footer Design Best Practices & Examples to Spice It Up
Email footer design can sound like an oxymoron to many of you out there. After all, what is there to design in the simple email footer. Isn’t it just a few lines of legal GDPR requirements?
There is so much that can be done with email footers, but they’re almost always overlooked. Email designers and marketers miss the chance of increasing conversions by using the footer.
In this blog post, we will present the most common email footer design practices that you can use to spice up your emails and increase engagement rates.
We’ll also present you with a quick and easy solution on how to design an email footer like a pro.
👉 Check out Part 1 of the series: Email Header Design Best Practices & Examples
What is an Email Footer?
An email footer is the last content block in your email template. In email design, we usually end an email with a nice email footer that contains important information that doesn’t fit in the main email body.
The information included in the email footer usually include:
- Contact information
- Unsubscribe button or preference adjustment CTA
- Website (shop) link
- Customer support contact
- Postal address
- Legal requirements
- Company logo
Email footers can also be used as email signatures for a specific type of email, such as cold emails, or automated emails that want to seem like they weren’t automated.
Email Signature Design Best Practices Illustrated with 20+ Examples
Email footer design best practices
Email designers might overlook email footer design, and get stuck in the same old email footer templates that have been used and reused.
Your email footers are an important part of your email template design and can be improved to catch the attention of your subscribers and get them to go through with secondary call to actions.
In this section, we will give you a few cool email footer designs that can inspire your next email.
Email footer legal requirements
If you’ve ever received any type of email from a company, chances are you have seen a text that looks a little bit like this:
You are receiving this email because you signed up for our newsletter.
You might be saying- Well yeah! But did you know that that specific piece of information is actually mandated by law?
In fact, depending on the country where you operate, you risk getting penalized and paying large sums of money.
In the UK for example, companies are required to include the following information in their email communications:
- Company name
- Company registration number
- Place of registration
- Registered office address
In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act includes a set of rules that all commercial emails should follow.
Updating subscriber preferences
Another must-have in your email footer is the unsubscribe button. We have previously mentioned the CAN-SPAM Act which serves as a guide to email marketers on the crucial information that they must include in their communications.
One of the elements that must always be included in emails is to tell recipients how they can opt out from your emails.
This is pretty self-explanatory. Make sure to include an unsubscribe link in your email footer, to allow subscribers to opt out when they don’t feel like receiving any more emails from your brand.
You might feel reticent to this, after all, who wants to lose email subscribers, especially after working so hard to attract them.
But you must understand that including an unsubscribe link in footers is more beneficial than you think.
Why is it important to include an unsubscribe link in email footers?
- Your email is compliant with the law.
- Your email subscribers won’t report you as spam.
- The unsubscribe rate can be used as a key metric of the quality and pertinence of your email content.
The good news, there is a way around losing subscribers. Alongside the unsubscribe button, you can give your subscribers the choice to edit their preferences instead.
This allows your subscribers to decrease the number of times they receive your emails or chose to be added to a different emailing list more relevant to their needs, instead of simply leaving for good.
Including the postal address of your company
Your company’s location is also an important piece of information that should be included in your email footers.
According to the CAN-SPAM Act, “your message should include a valid physical postal address”.
Your office address or PO box is somewhat “boring information. But using some fun design structures, you can make it a bit more interesting.
Adding brand logo
Another best practice is to include your brand logo in the email footer as a way to create strong brand recognition in the minds of your customers.
Email footers are also the most suitable section in your email template design to display your partners’ and collaborators’ logos.
View email in browser in the email footer
There is an on-going debate within the email marketing and design community about where to include the “View Email in Browser” link, or if it’s even necessary anymore.
The view in Browser link is used as a safety net for potential email rendering issues. Email designers fear that their emails might not look good on some email clients – especially image-heavy emails.
Instead of including a view in browser link in your email footer or your email header, it would be better to make sure that your email code is perfect and can render perfectly on every device and email client.
Download buttons for mobile apps
If you operate in the commerce or SaaS industries and offer a mobile app to customers, you can include two CTA buttons in your email footers to encourage users to download the app.
Customers might not be aware of all your products and services. Including a download on mobile button at the end of your emails can increase the number of downloads.
Add supporting information for the email body
The email footer can be used to give more details about the main email content.
We all know that emails shouldn’t be too long. Your customers’ attention span is not very long, and they want to receive information in bite-size.
But sometimes, you simply have to inform them of certain restrictions, rules, exceptions, and so on. That’s why the email footer is the perfect place to include this information.
This email example sent by Google on Black Friday takes it to the next level. Although it’s important to be 100% transparent with your customers, sometimes too many disclaimers can be counterproductive.
The email footer includes very detailed information that is certainly useful, but can overwhelm the reader, and even discourage to go through with a purchase. Not to mention that it increases the size and length of the email, which increases its chances to be cropped by the email client.
The alternative is to present the most important details in the email, and include a redirect link to your website’s policy landing page- where the user/customer can read the full documentation.
Linking to social media channels
One of the most commonly used elements in the email footer is social media icons.
It’s important to create a link between your multiple digital platforms. Encouraging your email subscribers to follow you on social media channels will increase their engagement with your brand, and help you maintain a constant contact with them.
Asking for feedback & product ratings
It’s a struggle for marketers to be 100% sure that the content they’re sending to subscribers is beneficial and pertinent for them. We are always on the hunt for the best content to share with our subscribers, and the most optimal combination of design elements and carefully curated messages.
Sometimes, collecting data such as open rates or CTR rates is not enough to determine how much your subscribers are enjoying your content, or if they find it useful or not.
In your email footer, you can include a simple rating system that allows you to collect binary feedback from your email list.
The email footer example above uses a straightforward question: Was this email useful? A yes or no question that doesn’t take too much engagement from the reader, and can easily generate responses. That can be used at a later stage to evaluate and improve the email content.
Inserting a referral link & other loyalty programs
At the end of your email, share with your subscribers details about your referral and loyalty programs that can benefit them and their friends.
Embedding customer support information
It’s crucial that your customers can easily reach you, especially when it comes to requesting assistance or reporting complaints.
In your email footer, you can include your customer support contact info or a direct link to your help center articles and useful documentations.
Embedding a search bar in the email footer
This example is one of the best email footer designs I’ve encountered, in terms of creativity. The email footer features a CTA button that looks like a search bar, encouraging email subscribers to click on it and start writing their search requests.
This is a more creative take on the email menu in footer.
Adding an email Footer menu
Email menus are a set of CTAs that simulate website menus. Some email designs prefer to include them in the email header instead. However, others like to leave them for the email footer, like so.
Email menus are useful as secondary calls to action. They are there to give customers access to any type of service or product they want- regardless of the content of the email.
You can get creative with your email menus, just like in this example. Adding some visual elements to your email footer can bring more attention to it, and increase engagement rates.
Wrapping up
Email footers are an important part of your email templates. They are the last thing that your subscribers see, and last impressions last as much as first impressions do.
Sometimes, the only difference between brands that target the same audiences and offer similar products is their level of attention to detail. And email footer design and content is definitely part of it.
Take a second look at your email footer designs and make sure to update them if needed, and use some of the email footer design best practices to spice things up.
Email header and footer design are important if you want to create a beautiful and professional email design. Take a look at the ultimate guide to email header design to learn more about it.
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